Blessings

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“Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s writing has a certain delicacy to it, so wonderfully observant, and so beautiful.”
—Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, author of Americanah

A powerful portrait of sexual awakening and self-acceptance set in a Nigeria on the brink of criminalizing same-sex relationships.

Uzoamaka’s miracle baby, Obiefuna, arrives after a series of miscarriages. As a young boy, he brings luck to his family and joy to those in his orbit, from the teachers at his school to the ladies getting their hair braided at Uzoamaka’s salon. But by adolescence, Obiefuna has grown unsure of himself. After his father brings home an apprentice from a nearby village, the lightness Obiefuna feels is quickly dashed when the two are caught sharing a moment of intimacy.

Without explanation, Obiefuna is sent off to Christian boarding school, where he must navigate strict codes, hierarchies, and alliances among his new classmates. There, he internalizes the lesson that he must hide his true self, pushing away those who may have otherwise brought him comfort. Back home, Uzoamaka must contend with the absence of her beloved son, her husband’s cryptic reasons for sending him away, and realizations that were within her all along.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Obiefuna and Uzoamaka, as they reach towards a future that will hold them both, Blessings is an elegant rendering of the compromises made in a country that forbids homosexuality and the love that can flourish in spite of them—among friends and partners, but also between a parent and child.“Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s writing has a certain delicacy to it, so wonderfully observant, and so beautiful.”
—Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, author of Americanah and Purple Hibiscus

“A stunning and exceptionally moving story of love, shame, redemption and fierce familial bonds. In sublime, evocative prose and from alternating points of view, Ibeh tells the story of Uzoamaka and Obiefuna as mother and son come to transformative realizations about themselves and each other. Ibeh has an elegant and passionate way with language, from the depictions of the Nigerian cultural landscape and its tense reckonings with queerness to the gorgeous mundanities of the protagonists’ home lives and the various dynamics of religion, class, and schoolboyhood. I’m grateful that this beautiful book exists, and I will return to it again and again as if for the first time.”
—Francesca Ekwuyasi, author of Butter Honey Pig Bread

“Magnificent . . . Complex and generationally driven . . . Ibeh has the ability to ensure his political positions inform, rather than overwhelm, the intimate dramas at the heart of his fiction. He’s vocal about the writers he admires—among them, Buchi Emecheta, Jhumpa Lahiri, Zadie Smith, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie—and clearly ambitious. With writing this good, it’s to be hoped he’ll soon find his name among their ranks.”
—The Telegraph

“A sublime coming-of-age tale . . . an extraordinarily composed and deeply felt debut.”
—The Guardian

“There is an unparalleled pleasure in something short and searing. Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s debut is set in modern-day Nigeria, where the country’s criminalisation of same-sex marriage has created a hostile atmosphere for the LGBTQ+ population. After an intimate moment with the family apprentice, Obiefuna is sent to a Christian boarding school by his father. So begins a process of self-discovery. Blessings is told from Obiefuna and his mother’s perspective, a dynamic which has plenty of potential for the profound.”
—EsquireCHUKWUEBUKA IBEH is a twenty-two-year-old writer from Port Harcourt, Nigeria. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s and The New England Review of Books, and he’s been profiled as one of the “Most Promising New Voices of Nigerian Fiction” in Electric Literature. Ibeh has studied creative writing under Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dave Eggers, and Tash Aw, and he’s currently completing an MFA in Fiction at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.US

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